Three Forms of Irony

Dramatic Irony

Alec writes a love letter to Judy, but we know Judy really loves Tommy.

Situational Irony

Bill Gates a.k.a. "I made Microsoft" uses an Apple computer.

Dramatic Irony

"Wow, a sweater! Thanks Bobby," said Janet after opening the present. Janet thought the sweater was hideous, but she appreciated her boyfriend's effort. But since Janet had seen the sweater before at a store in the mall, she exchanged it for some boots at the first chance she got. A week later, however, Bobby made reservations for two at the fanciest restaurant in town "Janet, I want to take you somewhere special. I have good news to tell you. Wear that sweater that I got you," Bobby told her. Janet didn't know how to react, "Um... that sweater doesn't quite match these boots I want to wear. Is it cool if I just wear it another time?" Bobby huffed, "You know, Janet, this meal is going to be expensive. The least you could do is act like you appreciate my gift." Janet paused to think.

Verbal Irony

A mean old man ate a large meal at a restaurant. The waitress tried to provide him with excellent service, but every time she brought him a dish, he complained. First he thought that the soup was too cold when it was hot. Then he said that his steak was dry and chewy, when it was moist and succulent. Then he complained that one of her blonde hairs was in his mashed potatoes, but the hair was actually grey like his own. She remained patient and continued to try to help him until the end of the meal, when he left her a quarter for a tip. She replied on his way out, "Thank you for the generous tip, Mister."

Dramatic Irony

Annie Allen loved her fiancé Scott. Annie loved him so much that he was all that she thought about all day. Feeling particularly in love with Scott, Annie thought that she'd surprise him with romance, so she snuck into his house using the spare key under his doormat and waited in his room for him to come home from a business trip. While waiting for him to come home, she thought the surprise might be even better if she hid in his closet. So she did. Twenty minutes later, she heard keys rustling in the lock. The door slammed, and then she heard the sound of feet walking up the stairs and Scott's voice. "You know I can't wait to see you, Baby," she thought she heard Scott say. He must be leaving me a message, Annie pleasantly thought to herself. Then she heard Scott continue to talk. "No, she's nothing serious. And besides, you know you're the one I love, Katie." Annie's heart dropped. She grabbed the pepper spray from out of her purse, unlatched the safety, and felt her hand tense on the release button. Scott walked into the room, smiling and laughing as he flirted with Katie on the phone.

Dramatic and Situational Irony

As the holiday season ended, Bertha Berger struggled to put on her blue jeans. They seemed much tighter than usual, so she stepped on the bathroom scale and received the bad news. She had never seen such a high number on the little scale, so she resolved to change. That day she threw out all of the junk food in her fridge and went grocery shopping. She was determined to lose weight, so she bought low-fat and reduced calorie versions of all of her favorite foods. When she got home she had a low-sodium bacon sandwich and a diet soda. For dinner she had two turkey burgers with reduced fat cheese and half-fat mayonnaise, along with two low-calorie ice-cream sandwiches for dessert. Before she went to bed, she ate a bag of baked potato chips, which are healthier than normal chips, and dipped them into low-fat cream cheese. When Bertha woke up the next morning, she was pleased with how well her diet was going, but when she stepped on to the scale, she saw that she had gained a pound.

Verbal Irony

Awesome! Another homework packet!

Situational Irony

General Sedgwick's last words were, "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."

Verbal Irony

Jack was on his way home from work when his wife Jill called him. He was in a hurry to get home and watch his favorite show, COPS, but Jill said that he needed to stop at the minimart to get some bread for dinner. Jack replied dutifully to his wife, "Yes, Dear." When he got to the minimart, Jack was in such a hurry that he didn't even pull into a parking spot. He just pulled up right next to the door. It was 6:58, and COPS was starting in two minutes, so Jack just left his car running and ran into the store. He grabbed the bread from the middle aisle and got in the line behind a skinny guy wearing a leather jacket. Jack tapped his foot impatiently as the man purchased lottery tickets. Finally, the clerk rang up Jack right as Jack's watch read 6:59. Jack hurriedly completed the transaction and ran outside. As he went to jump into his car, he noticed that it was gone. He looked around a bit, but it was no where in sight. "Great," Jack sighed. His watch read 7:01. "How wonderful," he said to himself, as he reached in his pocket to call his wife.

Situational and Verbal Irony

James Bond, better known as 007, orders a shaken, not stirred, martini. Bond begins flirting with the waitress as he picks up his martini. While continuing to flirt, Bond takes a small sip from his glass, winking at the waitress. Almost immediately Bond begins to fill the poison coursing through his veins. As he starts to pull out his gun, Bond groans "You're a great bartender." As the screen fades to black, a gunshot is heard.

Situational Irony

Jimmy the Lock was a master safecracker. He could bust open any safe in the world in under an hour using a crow bar, stethoscope, drill, and sledgehammer. No lock could hold Jimmy and that's why they called him "the Lock." Jimmy was scheduled to do a six-year stretch in Statesville for a bank job that got messy in suburbs, but he checked himself out before they could slam the cell door shut. Now Jimmy was set up to get the score of his life. He had the blueprints all laid out to do a job on an armored car diamond delivery. Gathering up all of his tools and gear, Jimmy headed out the door to meet his contact, Bobby the Rat, but when he got to his car, he couldn't find his keys. He patted down his pockets before he realized that he must have left them in his other thieving-pants. Jimmy went back to get his keys, but the door wouldn't open. Jimmy the Lock had locked himself out of his house.

Dramatic and Verbal Irony

John absolutely despises Annie because she is always so cruel and hateful. Unbeknownst top John, Annie is turning over a new leaf and she is developing a crush on him. Well intended, Annie buys him a dozen roses. Humiliated that Annie gave him roses in front of his friends, John yells, "These are great, Annie," and rips apart the bouquet.

Dramatic, Situational, and Verbal Irony

John, a reporter for Channel 9, is on his way to film Bill Murray's horse barn. On the way there, John says sarcastically to the camera man "I bet this barn is going to smell GREAT!" Little does John know, the barn does smell great because Bill Murray wouldn't have it the other way. Upon arriving, John is pleasantly surprised by the pleasant aroma. Pleasantly surprised, at least, until he stepped into smelly horse manure.

Verbal Irony

Making friends isn't easy. Ask Juan Guerrero, who moved to New High School High three months ago but still eats lunch by himself. Nobody picks on him really, but they pretty much ignore him completely, at least since the incident. You see, Juan had his chance. We almost adopted him into our crew, the skaters, after Juan said he could skate. "Oh yeah?" asked my boy Romeo, "well, where's your board?" Juan replied shakily, "Uh, my mom ran over it with her car, but I do flips and grinds and all that stuff." Romeo didn't believe him. "Why don't you use my board? Show me one of those flips," Romeo challenged. Juan gulped and grabbed the board. "Uh... Ok," he replied. When you see a good skater on TV or in a video game, skateboarding may look easy, but just moving properly, let alone doing any tricks, takes a lot of practice. Because of this, I was not the least bit surprised when Juan landed flat on his can before he even made it across a single sidewalk square. "Wow! What an awesome flip, Tony Hawk. You'll have to teach me that," Romeo sneered. Now Juan eats lunch alone.

Dramatic Irony

Mr. Bath is the president of Make-A-Bath Industries, a small company that employs fifteen workers, including Tom Miller, father of six. Ever since the economy went down the tubes, Make-A-Bath hasn't been selling bath tubs like they once did, and now Mr. Bath has to fire three workers, one of whom will be Tom Miller. But Mr. Bath has never fired anyone before, so he has been delaying giving Tom and the other employees the bad news. But Christmas is approaching. Tom wants to buy nice gifts for his six children, but he doesn't have any money. So Tom charges a whole bunch of nice gifts on his credit card, figuring that he can pay it back with money from his checks that he will be getting from his job all year. Tom and his family don't have a lot of extra money to spend, so he likes to get his kids nice Christmas presents. Tom is looking forward to one of the best Christmases ever.

Situational Irony

Mr. Reinhart is the building inspector for the entire county. Anytime a person wants to add a permanent structure to their home or property, such as a deck or balcony, the building plans need to be approved by Mr. Reinhart before construction can begin. Mr. Reinhart checks to see that each plan is safe before construction begins. Once building begins, he checks to see that construction is going according to the plan. In a way, he is responsible for ensuring that every structure in the county is built properly. One day Mr. Reinhart was having a party at his house. He and his three guests were barbequing on the porch attached to his house, when the structure suddenly collapsed. Apparently, termites got into the wood and had been chewing away the support beams for several months.

Dramatic Irony

One bright and warm Easter morning, Timmy Holloway woke up to the smell of eggs, but not breakfast eggs, Easter eggs. That's right Timmy had a craving for Easter eggs, and today was the day to get them boy howdy. There was only one thing standing in his way, well two really: the Solomon brothers. The Solomon brothers got more eggs than Timmy every year because there were two of them and they counted their eggs as one. Timmy suspected that this was cheating but he couldn't articulate the notion. When Timmy got to the fair grounds, he clutched his Easter egg sack behind his back and approached the Solomon brothers. The taller one distracted Timmy while the shorter one snuck behind him, clipping the corner of Timmy's egg sack and making quite a big hole. Unfortunately, Timmy failed to notice this. When the whistle blew, Timmy was off. He was surprised to see the Solomon brothers behind him, since he was much faster than they, but he didn't mind. Timmy beat them to every egg, and raced on to the next, never noticing that his sack wasn't getting heavier. As he approached the end of the course, Timmy was elated that he was the first to finish. The Solomon brothers were right behind him. "Maybe next year, loser twins," Timmy chuckled, right before he noticed that his sack was empty.

Dramatic Irony

Suzy works in a big sky scrapper downtown. She is the secretary for the regional manager of operations at Bork and Mork's Corks and Forks. As the secretary, she was entrusted with a large supply of loose cash called a slush fund. The slush fund started at around five thousand dollars, but Suzy has been dipping her hands into the slush fund. It first started when she forgot her wallet at home. She was really hungry, so she grabbed a few bucks out of the slush fund for lunch and told herself that she would pay it back tomorrow. When tomorrow came, she didn't pay it back. The next day she decided that she needed to go grocery shopping after work, but she didn't get paid until next week and she was out of money. So Suzy grabbed her grocery money out of the slush fund. Again she told herself that she would pay it back, and again she did not. This pattern went on for another week or two, and Suzy bought herself all kinds of fancy goods and services. With her freshly manicured nails, Suzy opened the slush found box and found that it was empty. She began to panic, but was eventually able to block it out of her mind. That afternoon Suzy's boss, Mr. Meister, called Suzy into his office. "Suzy," he said sternly. "As you may know, my birthday is next Friday. I want you to throw me the biggest party this office has ever seen." Suzy gulped as Mr. Meister went on, "I want an open bar, a clown, seven swans a swimming, the whole shebang! I want a nacho cheese fountain with at least four types of cheeses. Spare no expense. Drain every penny from the slush fund." Suzy noticed the look of childlike joy and excitement in his eyes as he imagined the extravagant party that would never happen, and Suzy shuddered to think of what tomorrow would bring.

Situational Irony

Swanson Wisconsin was a famous child star. She had several platinum selling albums, her own TV sitcom, and a series of straight-to-DVD films that received terrible reviews but sold really well. Swanson Wisconsin was extremely wealthy and had the respect and admiration of millions of boys and girls around the world. She was everywhere. She was even the face of the antidrug movement. Swanson Wisconsin appeared on several commercials, billboards, and bus advertisements telling young people not to use drugs. All over the country the message was heard: "Be like Swanson Wisconsin. Think up. Don't get high." One fateful December evening, Swanson Wisconsin crashed her Bentley into hotdog stand. No one was injured, but Swanson Wisconsin was extremely disorientated. At the hospital, blood tests revealed that Swanson Wisconsin had enough crystal meth, cocaine, and tranquilizers in her system to murder an elephant.

Situational Irony

The rapper Eminem is well-known for his song writing ability, but he is equally known for his shockingly profane and obscene lyrical content. Eminem has made a fortune selling his curse filled songs to millions of children around the world. But, on a 60 Minutes interview, Eminem claimed that there was no swearing in his own home and that his children were not allowed to play music with curse words, including his own tracks.

Verbal Irony

This locker room smells very good.

Verbal Irony

Though the police considered him a criminal, and property owners considered him a menace, Noodles considered himself an artist. Noodles would paint huge murals and spray can artwork on everything he could reach, water towers, billboards, shop windows, overpasses, anything he could reach. One day, Noodles spray painted his name in big block letters over the window of the local grocery store. When the store owner arrived the next day, he was heard to utter, "Oh! Thank you. How nice of you, Noodles, to spray paint your name over my store window like that. I really appreciate it." He never got to thank Noodles personally, though he often wished that he had.

Dramatic Irony

Tim's parents are proud of the "A" he got on the test, but we know he cheated.

Dramatic Irony

Tom has always liked Lucy, but Lucy has always thought Tom was annoying and unattractive. One day, Lucy comes home to find an eviction notice on her door. Apparently, her roommate had been spending the rent money that Lucy was giving her on other things. Lucy only has 24 hours to get all her stuff over to her mom's house, and Lucy doesn't even have a car. But Tom has a truck. So Lucy calls up Tom and asks him how he's doing. She tells him that she's always thought he was funny, and that they should hang out sometime. Tom thinks that Lucy has finally come around is beginning to like her. He also thinks that his jokes are funny because she is laughing after everything that he says.

Verbal Irony

When Lawrence saw the posters for the circus hanging on the bulletin board, as he swept up the trimmings at Slim's Barbershop, he knew he would be taking his little cousins. They loved animals, and he was looking forward to seeing the smiles on their faces as the circus performers amazed them with their stunts. But sweeping up hair clippings didn't pay a whole lot. Lawrence spent 45 dollars just getting tickets. But it was worth it to see his cousins' faces. The day finally came and everyone was excited as they walked into that big circus tent. But Lawrence soon realized that he and his cousins would be thirsty and hungry. As they sat in their seats, the drink vendor walked by selling beverages. Desperately thirsty, Lawrence asked him how much a lemonade would cost, and the drink vendor said, "Eleven dollars each." Lawrence replied, "Oh, that's it? Just eleven dollars? What a great deal for one cup of lemonade. That's totally worth it." The drink vendor walked away.

Situational Irony

When Mr. Goodenwell saw his baby boy Vince for the first time, he swore that he'd do anything to protect the little guy. This was easy at first, when all Vince did was lie in a pillow and drink milk. But as little Vince grew bigger, he started walking. And once he started walking, he got into everything. He was becoming a serious threat to himself when Mr. Goodenwell, making good on his vow to protect his son, went to the store and bought $150 worth of equipment to childproof his home. He put covers on the outlets, bumpers on the table corners, and a sliding lock on the toilet lid. But right as Mr. Goodenwell was adjusting the covers on the door knobs, Vince pulled the cap off an outlet and choked on it. Mr. Goodenwell found him just in time.